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Brigham Young in July of 1847. He made a round trip to California by way of Cedar Valley in the winter and spring of 1847-48, returning with cattle and wagons--the first such conveyances to cross the Old Spanish Trail. Jefferson Hunt returned again in the fall of 1849, piloting eager gold-seekers along a winter road to California. A traveling companion. Addison P r a t t , noted on October 31 of that year that near a spring in the west end of the Valley were "immense quantities of rich iron ore." Two months later Parley P. Pratt led an exploring party from Salt Lake City, reporting that in addition to rich iron ores were inexhaustible supplies of fuel necessary for smelting. Isaac C . Haight, a member of the p a r t y , wrote his impressions of the Valley. "I shall leave this place with regret." he recorded, "It is one of the most lovely places in the Great Basin.. . a large valley of most beautiful l a n d s . . .and beyond.. .high towering mountains covered with eternal snows; all of which contribute to beautify the scenery.. .while the clouds hang heavily on the mountains and the storms and tempest are raging, the valley enjoys a beautiful serenity ." This exploring p a r t y , returning to the Salt Lake Valley in the spring of 1850 was followed up that same year with the founding of Iron County and the establishment of Parowan as a base camp and agricultural foundation for the mining and smelting venture which was to follow. During the summer of 1851 the Parowan settlers, under the Jovian figure of Apostle George A . Smith, thoroughly explored this a r e a , changing the name of the creek from the Little Muddy to Coal Creek, after finding coal in the stream bed. It was a select few of the Parowan settlers who were chosen by Elder Smith to accompany Henry Lunt to Coal Creek and begin the iron industry in the fall of 1851. The point I wish to make from this overview is that until that day 125 years ago there were no real residents of Cedar Valley, only visitors. From the time the earliest natives began to hunt rabbits and gather roots and berries here, to the planting of Parowan under George A . Smith, there was no community of Cedar, only a lonesome vale now known as Cedar Valley. Not until the Mormons came, hoping desperately to establish a local supply of iron so vital to the building up of their Kingdom, was there an attempt to settle and build permanently on this site. So, this is why the report Elders Snow and Richards s e n t back to Salt Lake City in the winter of 1852, has more than passing significance. The Mormon apostles found no community at Cedar, they wrote, b u t rather "a Scotch p a r t y . a Welch parry, an English party and an American." They then expressed in a powerful and eloquent metaphor, their hopes for the settlement. "We turned Iron Masters and undertook to p u t all these parties through the furnace, and run out a party of Saints for building up the Kingdom of God." The task of Cedar City's settlers then, a s the

Includes biographies of the mayors of Cedar City and examples from the city minutes showing the events that took place under each administration. The three histories printed in the second section were written by three men at three different times in the history of Cedar City.

Brigham Young in July of 1847. He made a round trip to California by way of Cedar Valley in the winter and spring of 1847-48, returning with cattle and wagons--the first such conveyances to cross the Old Spanish Trail. Jefferson Hunt returned again in the fall of 1849, piloting eager gold-seekers along a winter road to California. A traveling companion. Addison P r a t t , noted on October 31 of that year that near a spring in the west end of the Valley were "immense quantities of rich iron ore." Two months later Parley P. Pratt led an exploring party from Salt Lake City, reporting that in addition to rich iron ores were inexhaustible supplies of fuel necessary for smelting. Isaac C . Haight, a member of the p a r t y , wrote his impressions of the Valley. "I shall leave this place with regret." he recorded, "It is one of the most lovely places in the Great Basin.. . a large valley of most beautiful l a n d s . . .and beyond.. .high towering mountains covered with eternal snows; all of which contribute to beautify the scenery.. .while the clouds hang heavily on the mountains and the storms and tempest are raging, the valley enjoys a beautiful serenity ." This exploring p a r t y , returning to the Salt Lake Valley in the spring of 1850 was followed up that same year with the founding of Iron County and the establishment of Parowan as a base camp and agricultural foundation for the mining and smelting venture which was to follow. During the summer of 1851 the Parowan settlers, under the Jovian figure of Apostle George A . Smith, thoroughly explored this a r e a , changing the name of the creek from the Little Muddy to Coal Creek, after finding coal in the stream bed. It was a select few of the Parowan settlers who were chosen by Elder Smith to accompany Henry Lunt to Coal Creek and begin the iron industry in the fall of 1851. The point I wish to make from this overview is that until that day 125 years ago there were no real residents of Cedar Valley, only visitors. From the time the earliest natives began to hunt rabbits and gather roots and berries here, to the planting of Parowan under George A . Smith, there was no community of Cedar, only a lonesome vale now known as Cedar Valley. Not until the Mormons came, hoping desperately to establish a local supply of iron so vital to the building up of their Kingdom, was there an attempt to settle and build permanently on this site. So, this is why the report Elders Snow and Richards s e n t back to Salt Lake City in the winter of 1852, has more than passing significance. The Mormon apostles found no community at Cedar, they wrote, b u t rather "a Scotch p a r t y . a Welch parry, an English party and an American." They then expressed in a powerful and eloquent metaphor, their hopes for the settlement. "We turned Iron Masters and undertook to p u t all these parties through the furnace, and run out a party of Saints for building up the Kingdom of God." The task of Cedar City's settlers then, a s the